WE may have had a stormy weekend but it certainly felt as though summer had arrived today.

The balmy weather looks set to last much of the week, but the sun is probably not here to stay.

Met Office experts have warned that this is just the start of the usual British summer with likely spells of rain on the way before we settle into the season. And while it feels like a heatwave, forecasters say we will only see highs of around 72F today and throughout the week.

Steve Randall from the Met Office said: "Over the humid bank holiday weekend and again today it's felt a lot warmer because we've had such cold weather through April. In fact, these temperatures are fairly normal for May and we're now enjoying warm, pleasant days usual to this time of year.

"We're looking at a similar forecast over the next few days but there will be some cloud and rain towards the end of the week.

"Living on the edge of the Atlantic we have changing weather patterns so we couldn't say whether summer has arrived. We can expect a bit of rain on its way yet so it's just looking like the typical British summer."

Experts have predicted a warmer-than-average summer with near to or above average rainfall. They say there is `very low probability' of a complete washout like last year.